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A release print is a copy of a
film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...
that is provided to a
movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...
for exhibition.


Definitions

Release prints are not to be confused with other types of prints used in the photochemical post-production process: * Rush prints, or dailies, are one-light, contact-printed copies made from an unedited roll of original camera negative immediately after
processing Processing is a free graphical library and integrated development environment (IDE) built for the electronic arts, new media art, and visual design communities with the purpose of teaching non-programmers the fundamentals of computer programming ...
and screened to the cast and crew in order to ensure that the takes can be used in the final film. * Workprints, sometimes called cutting copies, are, like rush prints, copies of a camera negative roll, or from selected takes. A workprint may be roughly corrected for brightness and color balance. The prints are used for editing before the negative itself is conformed, or cut to match the edited workprint. * An answer print is made either from the cut camera negative or an
interpositive An interpositive, intermediate positive, IP or master positive is an orange-based motion picture film with a positive image made from the edited camera negative. The orange base provides special color characteristics that allow more accurate colo ...
, depending on the production workflow, in order to verify that the grading ("timing" in American English) conforms to specifications, so that final adjustments can be made before the main batch of release prints is made. * A showprint is a very high quality projection print made for screening at special events such as gala premieres. They were most important in the era from 1968 to 1997, after film laboratories began to switch from earlier processes like dye transfer (e.g.,
Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
) and contact positive to color reversal intermediate (CRI)
internegative An internegative is a motion picture film duplicate. It is the color counterpart to an interpositive, in which a low-contrast color image is used as the positive between an original camera negative and a duplicate negative. After a film is shot, ...
s to make release prints. The CRI process is faster, but to accommodate such speed, the resulting release prints were usually exposed at a "one lite " setting. This, along with other measures to cut costs in duplicating films at high speed, led to a noticeable decline in the quality of release prints during the 1970s and 1980s. In contrast, a showprint is usually printed directly from the composited camera negative, with each shot individually timed as a duplicate intermediate element would normally be, onto a higher quality of print stock than is usual for mass-production release prints (e.g., Eastman 2393 for showprints, and the standard 2383 for mass-production release prints). As a showprint is at least two generations closer to the composited camera negative than a typical release print, the definition and saturation in the projected image is significantly higher. During the era when CRI was prevalent, film critics were often reviewing showprints with greatly different exposure than what the general public would see. Showprints are colloquially referred to as "EKs" (for Eastman Kodak), since "Showprint" is a tradename of DeLuxe, although it is not a registered trademark.


Workflow


Photochemical

In the traditional photochemical post-production workflow, release prints are usually copies, made using a high-speed continuous contact printer, of an internegative (sometimes referred to as a 'dupe negative'), which in turn is a copy of an
interpositive An interpositive, intermediate positive, IP or master positive is an orange-based motion picture film with a positive image made from the edited camera negative. The orange base provides special color characteristics that allow more accurate colo ...
(these were sometimes referred to as 'lavender prints' in the past, due to the slightly colored base of the otherwise black-and-white print), which in turn is a copy, optically printed to incorporate special effects, fades, etc., from the cut camera negative. In short, a typical release print is three generations removed from the cut camera negative.


Digital intermediate

The post-production of many feature films is now carried out using a
digital intermediate Digital intermediate (typically abbreviated DI) is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. Definition and overview A digital intermediat ...
workflow, in which the uncut camera negative is scanned, editing and other post-production functions are carried out using computers, and an internegative is burnt out to film, from which the release prints are struck in the normal way. This procedure eliminates at least one generation of analogue duplication and usually results in a significantly higher quality of release prints. It has the further advantage that a
Digital Cinema Package A Digital Cinema Package (DCP) is a collection of digital files used to store and convey digital cinema (DC) audio, image, and data streams. The term was popularized by Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC in its original recommendation for packaging ...
can be produced as the final output in addition to or instead of film prints, meaning that a single post-production workflow can produce all the required distribution media.


Release print stocks

As of March 2015,
Eastman Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
is the only remaining manufacturer of colour release print
stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a compan ...
in the world. Along with Kodak,
ORWO ORWO (for ''ORiginal WOlfen'') is a brand of black and white film products, made in Germany. ORWO was established in East Germany in 1964 as a brand for photographic film and magnetic tape, mainly produced at the former ''ORWO Filmfabrik Wolf ...
of Germany also sells black-and-white print stock. Other manufacturers, principally
DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
of the United States,
Fujifilm , trading as Fujifilm, or simply Fuji, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, operating in the realms of photography, optics, office and medical electronics, biotechnology, and chemicals. The offerings from the ...
of Japan (the penultimate company to discontinue colour print stock), Agfa-Gevaert of Germany, Ilford of the United Kingdom and
Tasma Tasma (Russian: ''Тасма'') is a Russian GOST and ISO certified manufacturer of black-and-white and colour photographic films. It also manufactures adhesive tape and demineralized water. Located in Kazan, Russia, it has been in operation sinc ...
of the Soviet Union competed with Kodak in the print stock market throughout most of the twentieth century. The person operating the printer on which the release print is struck must take several factors into consideration in order to achieve accurate color. These include the stock manufacturer, the color temperature of the bulbs in the printer, and the various color filters which may have been introduced during initial filming or subsequent generation of duplicates.


Theatrical projection

At the theater, release prints are projected through an aperture plate, placed between the film and the projector's light source. The aperture plate in combination with a prime lens of the appropriate focal distance determines which areas of the frame are magnified and projected and which are masked out, according to the aspect ratio in which the film is intended to be projected. Sometimes a
hard matte Mattes are used in photography and special effects filmmaking to combine two or more image elements into a single, final image. Usually, mattes are used to combine a foreground image (e.g. actors on a set) with a background image (e.g. a scenic ...
is used in printing to ensure that only the area of the frame shot in the camera that is intended to be projected is actually present on the release print. Some theaters have also used aperture plates that mask away part of the frame area that ''is'' supposed to be projected, usually where the screen is too small to accommodate a wider ratio and does not have a masking system in front of the screen itself. The audience may be confused when significant action appears on the masked-off edges of the picture. Director
Brad Bird Phillip Bradley Bird (born September 24, 1957) is an American film director, animator, screenwriter, producer, and voice actor. He has had a career spanning forty years in both animation and live-action. Bird was born in Montana and grew up ...
expressed frustration at this practice, which some theaters applied to his film ''
The Incredibles ''The Incredibles'' is a 2004 American computer-animated superhero film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Written and directed by Brad Bird, it stars the voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, ...



Production and disposal

Release prints are generally expensive. For example, in the United States, as of 2005, it typically cost at least US$1,000 to manufacture a release print, and that number did not include the additional cost of shipping the bulky release print to a movie theater for public exhibition. The cost of a release print is determined primarily by its length, the type of print stock used and the number of prints being struck in a given run. Laser subtitling release prints of foreign language films adds significantly to the cost per print. Due to the fear of piracy, film distributor, distributors try to ensure that prints are returned and destroyed after the movie's theatrical run is complete.Kerry Segrave, ''Piracy in the Motion Picture Industry'', Jefferson, NC, McFarland (2003), p. 178. However, small numbers of release prints do end up in the hands of private collectors, usually entering this market via
projectionist A projectionist is a person who operates a movie projector, particularly as an employee of a movie theater. Projectionists are also known as "operators". Historical background N.B. The dates given in the subject headings are approximate. Early ...
s, who simply retain their prints at the end of the run and do not return them. A significant number of films have been preserved this way, via prints eventually being donated to film archives and preservation masters printed from them. The polyester film base is often recycled. EKs (showprints) are even more expensive as they are almost completely made by hand and to much higher quality standards. Perhaps only five EKs will be made of a widely distributed feature, compared to thousands of standard prints. They are intended primarily for first-run and
Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...
-consideration theatrical runs in Los Angeles and New York City. This accounts for two of the typically five produced. Two EKs are usually reserved for the film's producer. The remaining EK is usually archived by the film's distributor. Conventional release prints, which are made from timed internegatives, usually contain black motor and changeover cue marks as the printing internegatives are "punched" and "inked" for this specific purpose. Showprints, being made from the composited camera negatives, which are never "punched" or "inked", have white motor and changeover cue marks as these marks are punched (or scribed) directly on the prints by hand, in the lab.


Gallery


References

{{Reflist


External links


SFIFF: Brad Bird's State of Cinema Address
Film and video terminology